Sally Quinn

Sally Quinn, a reporter for the Washington Post and author of several books, wrote this article about what her son taught her about faith.

Essentially, her 24-year-old son (also named Quinn… which would make him Quinn Quinn?) believes in God and Sally really doesn’t.

When her son was growing up, though, Sally didn’t know what to tell him.

Over the years I struggled with what to tell Quinn about God. I couldn’t teach him but I wanted him to be exposed to religion so he could eventually choose for himself. I sent him to my parents once or twice a week to spend the night and they read him Bible stories and talked to him about God.

I didn’t want to lie to him. When he was old enough I told him I didn’t believe in God, I couldn’t, but that believing gave many people a lot of comfort. I didn’t know how much he understood or was taking in.

Her son shows maturity in his response, when he tells his mom,

“I didn’t really understand that you didn’t believe in God until a few years ago. I didn’t know what ‘atheist’ meant. It’s a very harsh word, very ugly word. It’s like calling a black person the “N” word. And yet you can’t help being an atheist. We all have choices in life. Something traumatic can happen in your life to make you believe in God, like your son is dying and then he lives. It can change your mind. But most of the time you believe what you believe. You can’t really change that.”

He does raise an interesting point. People often turn to God because of something traumatic that happened in their lives (as opposed to logically thinking your way to God), as if God was a solution to the overwhelming problems in life. He adds, though, that religious people “can’t know for sure because nobody’s ever seen God.”

That’s exactly why I believe atheism is the most truthful option. Unless you have proof otherwise, atheism is the only rational solution we have. I have yet to see proof of God’s existence that could stand up to scientific and logical scrutiny.

Was the son angry at the mom for not raising him with religion?

“Not at all… I’m happy the way I was brought up religiously. If you had taught me there was only one thing I was supposed to believe then I wouldn’t have options. You taught me I could believe in anything I wanted to believe. I could choose what I wanted to believe in.”

The son adds that he thinks his mom is on her way to believing in God. Hopefully, the emotional “it feels good to believe in God so He must exist” argument won’t sway her.